inFamous 2 hands on: Rekindling the spark

InFamous 2 alreadycrept back onto my radar after its brief presentation behind closed doors at last year’s E3, but it came back in a big way last week during GDC. The major news was of course the announce of a mission editor, something the team at Sucker Punch has been working on for the past two years (which basically means it was a planned feature from the start). Before we all get too carried away, this doesn’t mean a Little Big Planet-style free-for-all. It’s a mission editor where you’re working with in-game assets and attributes, not a level editor where you create for whole cloth. In other words, it’s more a box of G.I.Joes than a box of Legos.

That’s not to downplay the the abilities of the mission editor, however. In fact, it’s probably more accessible for someone like myself who’s prone to being bogged down by world-building details. In inFamous 2, choosing a setting for a mission is simply a matter physically reaching a location in the city of New Marais. It gets trickier from there – and we weren’t given hands-on time for this portion – as a series of branching logic nodes are laid down and assigned with different characters and attributes (say, a zombified NPC) that can then be closed out and playtested. The developers on hand made it look easy, but it did look like trial and error and fine-tuning was routine as well.

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… and then some (though we were probably given an extra boost for the demo).

We were given a chance to play through a few scenarios created by the mission editor, including a race along power lines and a shooting gallery where a horde of enemies came rushing down the street. The goofiest mission took place atop a skyscraper where a pyramid of enemies danced on floating platforms, and you had to levitate exploding oil drums to knock them down. Nothing too fancy here yet, but the potential to create any type of mission (racing, puzzle, platforming, search and destroy) is intriguing, and should significantly extend the game beyond its story mode.

But for the time being, it’s still the story-driven missions that have me most excited. The karma system from the first game still plays a significant role, as we were immediately given a choice on how to rescue an ally being held hostage. Cole’s friend Zeke makes a return, this time around sounding more like the voice of reason when he suggests freeing a van full of captive police officers to aid you. There’s also a new character named Nix (who appears who have some powers of her own) who tells you to simply supercharge a trolley and ram it through the enemy blockade, without regard for the civilians along the way. I played both scenarios and couldn’t see any consequences beyond minor changes in the gameplay of the mission itself, but it’s likely to make a difference in the long run (see trailer below).

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The results of the more aggressive option. Not pictured: everyone run over along the way.

Cole’s electrical powers feel familiar, with standard bolts and rocket-like bursts working like they did before. A notable exception is an electrical tornado that appears to be charged up over time. It didn’t look as big as it did in the E3 trailer, but that could have been a more powered up version, and it’s still satisfying to simply whirl someone away.

But the most notable change comes in the melee moves, which now feel much more visceral thanks to the pronged metal rod Cole uses to really connect with his opponents. There’s also a meter that builds up every few hits and eventually lets you unleash a devastating finishing move that comes an extra visual flourish of slow motion or shallower depth of field.

Given that we’ll probably have to build up our powers at the beginning of the game, it’s great to see more satisfying hand-to-hand combat from the start. The first inFamous was bold enough to start you out as a superhero at the beginning and make you godlike by the end. If that’s the case here, I can only imagine the powers to come in inFamous 2.

inFamous 2 for PS3 has a release date of June 7, with a limited public beta to be announced in early April.